Guitar Synthesizer Repair Tips

Guitar Synthesizer Repair Tips


The links below take you takes pages on repairing various components of a vintage guitar system. This information is provided to help you repair your rig yourself, or to provide information to troubleshoot a particular problem you may be having.

These are simply guidelines of repairs that I have successfully done myself. It is not in the scope of these pages to go into great detail, but maybe you can gain some understanding of these systems, and figure out what is happening inside your rig. Ask any technician: figuring out what is wrong is usually half the work! If any one has any other tips to pass along, please let me know!


The ribbon connector to the hex pickup is broken/cracked.
There is a crack or break in the ribbon connector from the hex pickup. The ribbon cannot be repair, but you can re-wire pickup to a replacement ribbon.

One string on my guitar synth pickup has stopped working.
One or more strings completely fail. Is my guitar synth pickup bad?

The 24-Pin guitar synth cable has become unreliable.
When I jiggle the connector, sometimes it works, then it soon fails again.

One string on my GR-700 has become unreliable, the unit makes bursts of noise, etc.
Random noise comes from the GR-700, or one string has stopped working.

My GR-100 (or GR-300) has stopped working. Front panels lights may/may not work. Unit gets very hot.
The GR-100 (or GR-300) suddenly stops working.

The MC1 hold footswitch has stopped working. (Front panel HOLD LED does not light).
Pressing on the HOLD pedal does not sustain strings any longer.

The MC1 or Z3 display flashes when I first turn it on.
Front panel display flashes when the unit is turned on.

The MC1/Z3/GM-70 will not store any programs.
The MC1/Z3/GM-70 no longer stores any programs.

My guitar has a scratchy pickup selector.
With or without synth output, the regular guitar pickup switch is noisy and intermittent.

GR-700 pedals work with difficulty or are broken.
Video clip of replacing a GR-700 foot pedal.

Thanks to Mike Bacich and Mark Smart for their corrections and suggestions!



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